Growing my little flock

[DonyaQuick]

Is it weird that this batch of 4 chicks is by far the least needy bunch of chicks I have ever had??? They are super friendly but they have yet to wake me up at night. They just sleep happily. Then they get up when I get up in the morning and start motoring around. They very rarely cry at me but are always up for snuggles.

My husband thinks this silliness right here has cockerel vibes. I think 4 days is just a tad early to call it but there's one vote in anyway LOL.

Meanwhile, I'm trying again with that new Brinsea incubator since I've got a very broody Scruffy now. She wanted that first baby batch really badly, but it was too early for her and too late for them. When she didn't get them she doubled down on the fake eggs.

So this is the new batch I'm trying...my plan is to give any that get past the 2 week mark to her for the last week to finish up and hatch.

• 2 Coco eggs. I can never read hers when I check; they never look like dud dots, but...I was wrong last time. They always have a circle with an off-center dot mostly touching the side. It's always an "almost" bullseye but not quite a perfect one.
• 2 Yeti eggs...she has maybe 50% fertility. Her eggs have been bigger lately so I hope that bodes well.
• 2 Cuddles III eggs...she alsoO has at best 50% fertility but her eggs have also been bigger lately.
• 1 more Dingus egg...could be a quitter like before. She is 4 years old and starting to shut down the egg machine I think.

Bigfoot is not yet laying again. That's ok; her egg was the early quitter and it was a small egg. Littlefoot's eggs are also tiny...I know both their eggs will get bigger over time. Maybe next year for them. Cuddles III and Yeti's were a much better size.

Aaaand because I'm super not confident about that set (really wondering if Vanilla Bean is just firing blanks at this point!!), and because Scruffy mama can't wait until my July order, and because I feel like she deserves babies...

• 1 more Goobie & Little Fuzzy egg because that first chick from that combo is an amazing little thing. Super smart and hardy so far.
• 1 Joker egg because I want at least two eggs that I'm confident in, and my husband apparently thinks we need more chicken mischief.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Little chicks are one week old now and have moved into their new setup with a brooder plate. This setup is also covered, which is rather important as of today. They are just entering the phase where a bit of flapping makes them float up absurdly higher than it seems like it should lol.

 

[DonyaQuick]

This is surely beyond cockerel vibes now and into some other category. Even my past cockerels have not been this riddiculous at 1 week.

Now you may say...well it's just that one chick. But no, they're all pretty much like that. The big white one is just the easiest to photograph while being a goof.

 

[DonyaQuick]

I feel like spring is a double-eged sword. It's a time of new life flourishing, but also seems like it frequently brings death.

I lost Buddy yesterday. She had been sick for some time. I didn't want to say anything on the forums about it until after the conclusion of it all, because I knew it was a terminal condition, being either internal laying or tumor/cancer growing in her abdomen. Both situations are of a nature that many people would cull upon realizing the situation. I chose not to. I don't believe she suffered. She became slower, but she still had spunk up until the end and was able to get along just fine with her flock for most of each day. Still, my husband and I had been giving her a lot of extra supportive care for a month. Yesterday was the last day and it was tough. After her morning care, I returned her to her flock as usual and nothing rationally seemed off, but I had a weird feeling about it. An hour later I looked out and saw her still standing where I put her, the rest of the flock gathered round also just standing and looking at her. She looked tired. I'm sure I'm anthropomorphizing but it was too strange of a sight not to think that they were all somehow saying goodbye to her. The rooster boys let me come back in and collect her. No fuss, nobody trying to escape, they all just stood there and watched me leave with her like they knew. First I took her to a spot of fresh clover for a little snack, since clover was always her favorite and it was a beautiful day. She ate a few bites of it and did a happy bok-bok, then after a while she looked so tired again. My husband and I sat with her on the couch for her last four hours. I believe she had several heart attacks during that time. She just wanted to rest with us...and she did. We burried her later in the afternoon.

That death stings horribly because Buddy was one of my first set of chickens, she was my smartest hen, she was my husband's favorite, and because I had her for this long and therefore the attachment was strong. But I am very proud of her life. She had 4 extremely good years, and I have learned that is actually quite good for being a big hatchery production breed.

Buddy lives on in my flock. I have not just her direct children (my main roosters Mr Cuddles Junior and Monster), but also her grand children and now her great grand children in the brooder. I see elements of her in all of them.

These are some of the last photos I have of her. Here she is on the right, spending some house time with Chungus.

Spending time on my lap in my home office with snack scraps on her face.

And in this one she was already quite in decline, but still had enough sass to come steal bites from my waffles.

RIP Big ol' Buddy. You were dearly loved and will be missed.

Last night after all was done, I went to lock up the chickens at dusk. Squeak and Tengu stumbled out in the dark to great me for hugs before going back to bed. They never do that. Junior calmly let me stroke his back on the roost in the dark. He never lets me do that without a chomp. Then this morning all was well with all the chickens and life goes on. The morning ritual resumed of Junior deliberately trying to smoosh his fluffy butt all up on my face. Monster seemed happy and snuggly. The hens were up to their usual drama. I'm sure Junior will also go back to chomping me when I try to pet him tonight.

I made a family tree to appreciate just how much she has contributed to my flock.

 

[DonyaQuick]

On a lighter note than the last post...

Fooby booty this is the new greeting ritual.

Meanwhile, cockerel vibes intensify...I know it looks like it's running but it's not, those are floppy feet and it's lying sideways in my hand.

Also, exciting stuff in the incubator: the two Vanilla Bean & Yeti eggs are developing beautifully. Fingers crossed they make it all the way this time and I finally get bean babies. Scruffy already has the three high confidence main flock eggs under her. I just want to keep an eye on the bean ones a bit longer before I move them under her.

 

[DonyaQuick]

This batch of chicks is unreal. They have a new sport: paper towl log rolling.

Meanwhile...lockdown begins for Scruffy's eggs. She has all five of the developing ones from the incubator now, which includes the two bean eggs. Candled them all one last time and air cells look better sized on this set.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I’m so sorry you lost your girl Buddy! You have a lovely flock. I used to have a bachelor flock (I miss my boys a lot— even the naughty one who wanted to spur me half the time), and it could be chaotic, but it was a lot of fun, too. When I get more chickens one day I’ll definitely start up another bachelor flock.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Cockerel vibes confirmed...heard an awful noise this morning. What could it be? A screaming hen outside? Some poor other creature being murdered? No, it was Mr Liu Kang here (yes the Mortal Kombat character for his martial arts exit from the egg lol). He decided 6AM this morning was time to give crowing a try. I believe 3.5 weeks to SCREEEEE-EEEEEE is a new record for my birds...he has officially beaten Vanilla Bean's previous record of crowing at 4 weeks old. This also means my husband's vibe-check chick sexing method has a 92% accuracy over the years LOL.

I’m so sorry you lost your girl Buddy! You have a lovely flock. I used to have a bachelor flock (I miss my boys a lot— even the naughty one who wanted to spur me half the time), and it could be chaotic, but it was a lot of fun, too. When I get more chickens one day I’ll definitely start up another bachelor flock.

She was a lovely hen; I'm glad I have so many of Buddy's lineage at least. Three more descendants have external pipped under broody Scruffy today

I'm hoping my bachelor flock expansion will go at least semi-smoothly...chaotic but fun is definitely the right descriptor for those LOL.

 

[DonyaQuick]

One bean egg was a no go unfortunately. The other bean egg did great, as did the 3 main flock eggs. So I got 4 this round. Feels a bit like the universe has some weird rule that I can hatch a maximum of 4 eggs at once...but mama Scruffy is so happy, and they are 4 darned cute little fluff balls. They also all walked right out from under mom and onto my hand.

Out of those 4 fluffs, 3 are clearly members of a goth/emo band.

And from the 4th fluff, it's probably obvious why I wanted more bean babies.

 

[DonyaQuick]

First four chicks all have names now: Pumpkin (buff), Fooby (black/barred), Liu Kang as already known (white), and Boots (gray mottled who needed shoes at first).

Mr Kang is shaping up to be a lovely boy. So far he seems to be the only boy of the bunch too. So my formal guess for this batch is 3 pulles and one Kang lol.

Boots being silly...she somehow knows her name already and comes when called so she can do this.

And the Scruffy baby bunch is also currently giving me 3 pullets and a cockerel vibes. Cockerel vibes from white face in the back, which is the Dingus baby. I need to have my husband have a guess too though since his vibe-o-meter has been the more accurate one lol.

Also, although only indirectly related to chickens, I had a significant other accomplishment this weekend: the first round of finished compost from chicken manure went into the top portion of two new metal raised beds today (only had one set up when I took the photo). I really struggled with composting when I first moved to this property; seemed like a chemical had been applied in the past that hadn't gone away. The soil was garbage and plants were patchy. Nothing wanted to grow and stuff didn't want to break down properly when in contact with the ground. A few years of care later, the grass and other ground cover plants are lush and the soil is improving too, although it will probably always be too rocky for many crops. However, my composting is also working now - so I can make my own medium for that. Although 2 new beds is probably where I'm at for this year, I can keep expanding the gardening over time as I get more compost to work with courtesy of the chickens.